Black Rain Ordnance Freedom Fighter

Here the UBR stock is extended, and the ergonomic pistol grip is shown.

In the very short amount of time since Black Rain Ordnance incorporated in 2009, the company has gathered a fair amount of attention in the highly competitive arena of AR-platfrom rifles. That attention has come due to the company producing high quality rifles that consider many variables important to the end shooter.

This year my focus was drawn to a new rifle that Black Rain is working on – the Freedom Fighter. This rifle is still a prototype, and the bosses tell me they still have a few modifications they want to make before it will pass their requirements for the market. One area of improvement is working on is to reduce some weight, as the rifle was a bit on the heavier side.

Black Rain has already produced quality rifles in .223 and .308 caliber (7.62x51mm), but the Freedom Fighter looks to carve a notch into another highly popular rifle market – the 7.62x39mm.

Now to be sure this is not your standard AK-47. The Freedom Fighter is not even an AK-47 with a whole bunch of tactical attachments. It has a similar appearance to the FN SCAR, with a taller receiver, and full length Picatinny rail on top. The hand guard has a complete quad rail for assessory attachments, and is also similar to the FN SCAR being taller than standard hand guards. The charging handle is just right to perform its function without snagging on items.

Notice the taller hand guard.

Here is what the Freedom Fighter also has to offer:

Milled upper and lower receivers

Magpul UBR collapsible and folding stock

Ambidextrous fire select controls

Ergonomic rubberized pistol grip

Single point, push button sling attachment on the stock

Light recoil

Picatinny top rail

Quad rail foregrip

Able to accept standard metal and polymer AK-47 magazines

Expected to be ready by mid summer or fall

MSRP will be decided once all the modifications are complete.

Having handled Black Rain rifles before, this one appears to follow in the pattern of another well made rifle. Although heavier than I would like, it was still a well balanced feel in my hands.

Aaron is a life-long firearm enthusiast and hunter. He has been a police officer for nearly 19 years, and currently is a Sergeant in Special Operations. He has served on the department’s SWAT Team for 14 years, with 8 years as the Sniper Team Leader. When not fussing over fractions of inches, and gut-less wonders, he can usually be found sipping from a ridiculously large coffee mug. Aaron is also the editor and main writer at BlueSheepDog.com.

Looks VERY clunky for what you’re getting, which is an AK in a new suit.

MattCFII

Agreed, on a milled folder trunnion receiver no less. Seems like a waste since it would make a great AK. If it was a standard back end, I’d probably be more enthusiastic.

Dukeleto77

quite a snazzy looking new suit, at least. You look familiar, btw..? 😀

tludt888

Is… is that an AK?

Esh325

It may not be a standard AK, but it’s quite clearly heavily influenced from the Kalashnikov design. It looks like a modernized AK basically. If the commercial AK-12’s and AK-107’s ever come to the US, I can’t see this being that successful.

I’m pretty sure it is. They show use guns with the stock sale items on them. They never bring a rough sample gun

Tony

That’s pretty clearly a milled AK with a giant hunk of metal in place of the standard top cover and a bobbed selector level.

Rather than trying to make it a fancy looking brick, I’d be more psyched if they just admitted it was an AK.

I’d be tickled pink if a domestic manufacturer brought US quality control to a home rolled practical AK, and you don’t need a jiant aluminum billet on top of the rifle to do that.

Tony

To more clearly illustrate, here’s one of the finest photo manips money can buy.

Just because it looks a tiny bit like a duck doesn’t mean it has anything to do with ducks, or in this case anything that isn’t completely an AK.

T-Bone

I shouldered this weapon today at SHOT and I can tell you it weighs a ton!
It looks cool as hell and you could run over it with a truck – but it’s heavy.
……or I could just man-the-fugg-up

Aaron

No T-Bone you’re right! Holding the Freedom Fighter for any length of time would become quite laborious. Being a “prototype” I think Black Rain literally got a version put together to show off at SHOT, and then will seek end-user input on modifications to make it more marketable. They already recognize the weight as a problem. I see reduced rail sections, and perhaps a smaller hand guard in a final version.

floppyscience

Fugly.

…I love it.

Bull

if they where building a rifle on the AK platform … why not make it in polymer and make the ak BCG ride in the upper. sure. you would only use the trunnion, parts of the gas system and maybe some fcg parts. but then you could at least claim it was a new rifle! this is just a milled ak with a new top cover,stock(and stock retaining) and upper/lower handguard.

That’s actually kind of an interesting idea. If the upper and lower hinge open, you could have a more or less standard AK bolt riding on rails in the upper without running into major problems disassembling it. Main issue I see is rigidity in the lower receiver regarding the FCG, you don’t want flex there so it would have to be reinforced. But if the rail and recoil spring are attached to an aluminum upper, there wouldn’t be any other stress applied to it.